Story:Kings of Strife/Part 5
'Part Five' Lieutenant Vikcent Hyusei's boots echoed softly as he walked through the halls of Nures Headquarters South Complex. Now that he had been returned to the Nneonian government’s capital in Nures City, he had been summoned to the south complex almost immediately. When he visited his barracks – they smelled like his comrades, his roommates – he could only bear to remove the extremities of his uniform before he had to leave the premises. It was simply too much. Now, the various soldiers around him saluted to him as he passed, as if he deserved their respect. He didn’t look back at them or even nod in response. Vik’s pearl blue eyes were clouded by doubts and regrets. It did not take long before he arrived at his destination, the debriefing office at the back of the large headquarters. Hesitating, Vik ran his left hand through his short jet black hair, slicking it to the side as he unconsciously did, and rubbed the sides of his face. Still thinking of everything except the task in front of him, he opened the door to the intelligence department and entered. Two guards stood inside the doorway and one started walking deeper down the department’s hallway when Vik entered, not even bothering to turn and see if he was being followed. Vik assumed he was to follow him and took up step behind the larger man. The door he had entered led into a dimly lit hallway with doors on both sides, all most likely leading to individual interrogation rooms. After about two minutes of silent travel, the guard led him to a door about halfway down the path and took up a stoic stance outside of it. Vik took this as his cue to go in, and entered the room. Inside, the interrogation chamber was just as dim as its hallway, if not more so. The room surely had a reason for the darkness, but the soldier had never been interrogated before, so its purpose evaded him. The interior of the room was a bit larger than he envisioned, considering how close together the doors were in the hallway. The perimeter of the section was wide and broad with a short ceiling that was only a few inches taller than he was. A mahogany table with a solitary chair sat waiting in front of him, and three of the four walls around him were empty. The one facing him was covered by a large mirror, almost certainly double sided. He sat at the table and looked down, awaiting his judgment. "...Lieutenant Vikcent Hyusei. Correct?" The interrogating voice was metallic and came from the direction of the mirror. Just as he thought - they could see him, but he couldn't see them. They were probably coldly devising how many years he should suffer before he would be executed for his cowardice. Vik simply nodded at the mention of his name, deciding that silence would be his best friend for now. “Sit,” the voice commanded. Vik complied. "Let’s not waste any time, lieutenant. Were you or were you not involved in the top secret mission investigating the criminal organization "Ouroboros"?" Vik nodded to the invisible speaker; it continued to interrogate him. "Do you deny that you are the only survivor of the mission?" He shook his head this time. The others' bodies were mangled and obviously dead, a fact he vividly remembered. A shudder involuntarily shook him as he remembered how terribly ravaged their bodies were at the funeral. Nobody should have had to die like that. "And do you deny that the information the Herohji squad was sent to retrieve was destroyed?" Once again, he shook his head. "Very well, then.” The voice of the disembodied interrogater rose in volume. "Lieutenant Vikcent Hyusei, you are hereby promoted four ranks to Lieutenant Colonel for your heroic efforts. In addition, you will also be awarded the Badge of Outstanding Duty in twelve days. Until then, and for another twelve days afterwards, you are relieved of duty and on a paid leave of absence for rest and relaxation. Understood?" Dumbfounded, Vik looked up towards the mirror, only to be met with his own shocked face. “Wha… What?” None of this made sense. Why was he being rewarded? The voice behind the mirror paused. “It was due to your heroics that the Herohji Squad survived, even if at such small numbers. With your survival, we have learned a valuable lesson and will assess our tactics heavily. Your country thanks you for your service, Lieutenant Colonel.” “Service?!” Vik stood and looked down at his shaking hands. “What service? What did I do? Nothing! Everyone else fought and died honorably, but I… I…!” “Clearly you have not read your report, Lieutenant Colonel. Thanks to our thorough investigation of the scene, we have disproved the theory that there was ever an Ouroboros in the first place. What your squad was battling was simply a common criminal cartel. Your survival allowed us to investigate to the fullest, and your survival ensures your use in the future.” Vik almost fell to his knees. His eyes, wide and unseeing, threatened to let loose tears. It took a moment of articulating his saliva before he was able to speak. “What? Ouroboros isn’t real? None of the legends or intel was real?” “Correct, Lieutenant Colonel.” Something inside Vik was starting to bubble up and threatened to overflow. He realized it was rage. “No… You’re lying! We’ve been chasing these guys for months!” “You made the right choice, Lieutenant Colonel, by choosing to live and tell the story. Your comrades smile upon you and are grateful for the fact that you allow them to be known as selfless heroes.” The voice behind the mirror didn’t seem to have any remorse or emotion in its cold words. “Selfless - ?!” Vik began to violently shake now, and sweat beaded upon his forehead. It was all he could do to not punch the mirror in front of him. If anything, he realized, the officer behind the mirror was not portraying his comrades as heroes, but as jokes that wasted their lives. “Sir, with all due respect, I didn’t choose to not fight – and there’s no way that all of our undercover work, all those months of intelligence gathering, could have been wrong!” A different voice spoke this time. “With all due respect, there are many interrogations we must get to. Yours is complete. We will assume you understand. Good day, hero. We will be making use of you soon." Vik didn't move for a moment, still stuck on the situation. Was he imagining the voice saying "hero" with a tinge of spite? The guard came in with some unknown cue and ushered him out the door. Once outside in the hallway again, the guard took point back in front of the door. Vik continued to stand frozen in place in shock, but after realizing that he was being glared at by the guard, he turned around and staggered down the hallway again. Numbly and absently, he showed himself back out of the compound until he reached the door from which he came, and continued to mindlessly stagger his way back to his barrack, somehow finding his way to sit on his bed. Just like before, he smelled the air of his comrade’s possessions. “A promotion, a badge, and a month of paid vacation… for running away and not lifting a finger.” Speaking it out loud didn’t make the events of the interrogation any more believable. He sat there on the bed in silence, in disbelief, in mourning. Hours passed, and the sun set, bringing in darkness to the large open window in his barrack. Still Vik sat, hearing his comrade’s joyful voices and dying screams. They were gone, and he wasn’t. And he was being honored for it. “No,” he muttered when the sun began to rise. Tears had long since dried up on his cheeks. As he spoke, more to his peers than to himself, his voice came out cracking and laced with hatred. “I won’t let you all go like this. I’ll finish the mission. I’ll bring you honor, and take down Ouroboros, and fix this country. I’ll make things right.” He stood. “Or I will die trying.” For eight days he prepared around the clock, researching and planning and thinking hard. Now, Vik's face was illuminated by the dim light of the data terminal in the Southern Headquarter's Datalog laboratory. He tapped his finger on the desk he sat at impatiently as he waited for the data he selected to transfer to his mobile device. “Damn datalogs taking forever to sync…” After a minute or two, a familiar light blinked on his portable Datalog, and he disconnected it from the army's terminal. It now held every file of information that pertained to his purposes, or at least the ones that a Lieutenant Colonel could access freely. He looked around him as he shut down the secret documents he was browsing and transferring. It would be too risky to stay here and peruse them all, and he needed all the rest he could get for his trip tomorrow. ‘I have to get some rest. I can’t be late tomorrow.’ Tomorrow, his true mission began. The newly minted Lieutenant Colonel shut down the Datalog terminal and stepped away from the desk while slipping his handheld Datalog in his pocket. He left the office room and quietly took the stairs back down to the ground floor. All along the way he continued to run his plans over in his head. ‘I’ve gathered enough rations, and I’m outfitted for the climb. About three weeks of necessary supplies should be fine…’ Tomorrow, he would leave the capital city of Nures and drive down to the city of Mountanus, a few hours drive south. It was the closest settlement to the tallest mountain in the world: Mount Gulg. Before, Vik had never really looked into the information his squad was pilfering on the society Ouroboros. After his promotion, though, he dived into the research earnestly. There was little on the group in general, but in total they had recently come across documents and members that mentioned a ‘Crystal’. Few documents existed on what exactly such a thing was, and none of them were open to Vik’s level of intelligence clearance. No one knew why they needed the jewel, nor what was so special about it, but the fact remained: Ouroboros had started working in Nneoh more often in order to get close to the Crystal. The documents procured in the last Herohji Squad mission likely detailed the exact plans of the Crystal retrieval they planned, but through relentless studying and sleuthing, Vik came to a logical conclusion that the Crystal was likely hidden somewhere that was both unexplored and extremely dangerous. The only place that satisfied these criteria was the legendary summit of Mount Gulg. Tourists flocked to the mountain year-round to climb it, but never in the world’s recorded history had anyone reached the top of the landmark. It was too high in the air for airships to even function normally, and they all failed to arrive at the top; scientists theorized that it was around 20 miles high. The guards greeted him as he left the central headquarters building. "Leaving already, Lieutenant Colonel Hyusei? Did you accomplish what you needed?" The sentry closest to the door, and most likely the least experienced one judging from his cheerful tone, addressed him as he left. Vik frowned and ignored him. ‘The tallest mountain in the world…’ Vik thought to himself as he walked through the orderly dark streets of Nures’ military complex towards his barrack building. ‘I can’t afford to fail at all. My life is on the line.’ Every year, hundreds of would-be mountain climbers died on the ascent of Mount Gulg. If he wasn’t careful, Vik would be one of them. The stagnant night air prompted Vik to begin to sweat a bit due to the heavy winter coat he wore over his uniform tunic and pants. While useless now, it would be essential to his survival the higher he climbed on Mount Gulg. ‘I’ll need to survive while I search for the Crystal… if it’s even up there.’ If the Crystal was close to the summit, it would explain why Ouroboros was taking so long to prepare its retrieval, as well as why the artifact had never been accidentally found by anyone. If that was true, there was still the matter of finding it and hiding it. Even though he knew no idea what this Crystal was, it was apparently essential to Ouroboros’ agenda - and was thus crucial to Vik’s agenda. Whatever it took to antagonize the group was something that he had to do. First he had to stop them, then he would expose them – and the lies of the higher-ups would be known to all. ‘My squad will not die in vain.’ Ancient legends spoke of the porcelain furnace atop Gulg and how its tomb provided the catalyst for Gulg’s eruptions, and equally early intelligence reports went out of their way to discuss these legends. But since it hadn’t erupted in millennia, it was likely that the Crystal had been hidden for a very long time. But how was he to find it, and what if he was completely wrong? Vik didn’t want to admit how frustrating it would be if his only lead was false… No wonder the organization was so secret. Vik looked up to the sky as he neared the barracks. The sun would be rising in a couple of hours, but for now the sky was pitch black. Not a single star shined in the face of ensuing daybreak. His expression hardened. ‘I will make the stars shine again for you, my friends. No hesitation. I swear it.’ **** After almost half an hour of starlight observation, Maria realized that Crono was likely finished with his shower by now, and that the night had solidified around her like a second cloak. It felt like she had been sitting here watching lovingly for hours. It was getting late, she figured. The peace had been refreshing, but as with everything good in the world, she knew it couldn't last. Besides, the comet shower looked as if it was starting to die down. Maria turned around and hopped off the perimeter's railing. Her boots tapped loudly on the hardwood floor of the airship. She froze like a statue in her half bent over, half crouching form until a moment's pause yielded that she was still undetected, and the upper deck was still borderline deserted. A quiet breath of relief escaped her lips as she stood up and looked back towards the sky one last time. Truly a beautiful sight – miniature stars streaked across the sky in various colors and shades of blue, and beneath the comets an even smaller light shone. The latter light caught her attention – it was different from the others. She turned towards it and narrowed her eyes. The object was out of place in the teal comet-ridden skies, if only for its relative darkness in comparison to the bright comets. If anything, the object seemed to glide in the same fashion as the airship she was on. It continued to grow closer and larger the more she looked at it, with an almost exponential rate of change. Curiosity took over her – could it really be another airship? Why did it look like it was heading right for her? Far off down the deck, towards the bridge, a door slammed open and crewmen started rushing out into the night. Their loud arrival gave Maria a shock and she jumped slightly, crouching down further to prevent herself from being seen easily. What looked like the entire crew was coming to the top of the ship, but for what? She looked back to the oncoming light, and as it came closer, she swore there was a tall mast rising from the light, and engine smoke trailing behind it. There was no longer any doubt – this was definitely a ship coming close. Why the panic from the crewmen, then? The answer didn’t matter. Regardless of what was going on, it was a bad idea for her to be anywhere near when there were so many crewmen about, considering the curfew for passengers ended after sunset. She started making her way slowly towards the back of the ship, where she could take the stairs back down to the passenger level, when the ground beneath her rocked violently. Instantly afterwards, a deafening noise ripped through the quiet night. Was that an explosion? Maria’s vision went dark for a moment before she revived. Whatever happened was enough to knock her unconscious, likely for as much as five minutes. She looked around with squinting eyes at the radically different deck around her. The foreign airship was much closer now, almost parallel to her own, and she could see men dressed in various shades of black working around a thin chrome bridge as they attempted to attach it to her own airship. There were scores of men running about with guns on both ships, each aiming at others and firing haphazardly. Undoubtedly, the foreign ship was an enemy. Her eyes widened as she realized the gravity of her situation, as well as when she noticed blood dripping down her forehead. A headache started to pound at her consciousness, and when she flinched at occasional contractions of pain, she could have sworn a pair of golden eyes stared at her from beyond her mind. ‘No. Not now. I have to get downstairs – to Crono.’ He would protect her, she knew. It didn’t feel great to have to rely on him for her safety… but the mercenary was her only option here. Slowly, Maria pushed herself up from the ground and rubbed her forehead. The wound on it wasn’t deep, but it definitely wasn’t good for her to have it. She held a piece of her cloak to her head as she started to stumble towards the back of the ship. Men scrambled all about her, apparently too preoccupied to worry about her, and gunshots exploded from each ship relentlessly. She missed the pristine silence that felt as if it would last forever… Eventually, a crewman stopped in his tracks as she walked by and grabbed her shoulders. “What are you doing up here? Why aren’t you downstairs?! This is no time for games! We’re being attacked by sky pirates, you idiot!” Maria looked at the yelling crewman in recoiling fear. “I’m sorry, I’m trying to get down there now… Please, can you help me?” The stubbled man looked at her with confusion for a moment. “What are you… How did you get up here, then?” Before she could respond, Maria noticed the man’s face lose all its color. She opened her mouth to speak as he looked behind her, but he suddenly pulled her forward and whirled around where she once stood with a yell. Not even a second later, a particularly close gunshot blew through the night, and a spine-shattering shock blasted into the crewman. The impact drove him and Maria to the ground. She lay there in shock, the heavy and convulsing body of the crewman weighing heavily on her own. After a few seconds he stopped moving, and she started to feel liquid bleeding through her cloak. It was blood, she knew; the man had saved her life with his own. She didn’t dare move for a long time, both out of shock and fear. The pirate shooter likely thought he killed them both if she stayed completely stationary. Finally, after what felt like minutes beneath the corpse, Maria stirred. She slowly rolled the dead man off her back and pushed herself up, noting the large blood stains on her violet cloak. A twinge of regret proved to her that, despite what she had told Crono, she did like these clothes, and regretted ruining them. This wasn’t the time to worry about that, she knew. She had to get downstairs. As she stood up, the amnesiac fearfully looked back to the enemy airship. Around her was a warzone, but it was dying down quickly – the pirates heavily outnumbered the crewmen. Before long, the pirates would be in control of the ship. The women and children would be violated or killed, the men murdered or conscripted. ‘Someone has to do something. This can’t be happening.’ How could such a beautiful night have turned to a hellish warzone? Someone had to do something, and she couldn’t help but wish it was Crono. ‘He’ll save me. I know he will.’ Even though the mercenary was injured, and even though he was just one man against a crew of sky pirates, she had faith in him. ‘He always does.’ Maria finally arrived at the stairs leading down to the passenger floor and felt excitement in her breast. Just a little bit longer and she would be saved! With a smile, she started down the stairs when she was once again robbed of a floor beneath her. Another explosion, smaller than the first but still powerful enough to rock the ship, caused her to lose her balance and fall forward. She hit the metal stairs hard and fell downward, tumbling, tumbling, tumbling down. Finally, she landed on her back, and a wordless scream erupted from her mouth. This time she stayed conscious, only for her to feel the pain of her injuries vividly. Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes as she slowly curled up, aching pain rendering her mute. Urgent screams from above brought back Maria’s need to move, and she leaned on the wall of the dark passage heavily as she struggled to stand up. Her arms were almost numb, and her leg shivered with pain. It felt as if her entire body would shatter if she was hurt one more time. But she was here now, with the passenger deck – and Crono – just the turn of a handle away from her. She imagined him standing there waiting on her, his lean arms ready to grab her and protect her with their warmth. Salvation… Maria jostled the doorknob, but the door would not open. It was locked. It made sense. Locking the passengers in their rooms in the event of a crisis was undoubtedly the safest option for the paying commuters, and would keep the pirates out for the most part, but of course it depended on the passengers being in their rooms after the sunset curfew. In other words, while it saved the others, it damned Maria. There was still a slim chance, she theorized. If she couldn’t open the door from the outside, surely the passengers could open it from the inside. Crono could still come and save her – she still had a chance. Without a doubt he would come to save her once the attacks started and the explosions rocked throughout the ship. He wouldn’t just sit around while she was in danger, of course. So why was she still alone and in danger? Now that she realized just how hopeless she was, Maria felt truly numb. No more fear, no more pain… just emptiness. She felt resigned… peaceful, almost. She closed her eyes, turned, and started up the stairs again. Her body was moving out of her control now; she felt like a bystander in her own skin. Her inner thoughts were cloudy, yet clear. No more explosions or interruptions stopped her ascent, and as she rose back up to the chaotic upper deck, the chilly night wrapped its familiar icy fingers around her once again. Although her eyes were closed, when she arrived she could tell that the battle was almost over. Most of the crewmen were on the ground scrambling in retreat, or dead. Pirates all in black swarmed both decks with guns blazing. Every one of the men on the decks looked to her as she stepped onto the top deck. Maria opened her eyes, but still could not see. She felt the golden power radiating from her eyes and she accepted it. As she gained her sight, the blackest cloak of darkness took her consciousness from her. She recognized this darkness, Maria realized after a moment. The last time she felt this degree of isolation was in the village of Troia, when Crono’s life was in danger. Now it was her own life in jeopardy, yet just as before, she felt no anxiety here. Only loneliness. Just as she was starting to feel familiar with the darkness, it faded away. The darkness and the loneliness was all that she had, the only thing that was only hers to understand, and it had left her in a flat land of strange ornamentations and a checkerboard floor, pulled away like a curtain, revealing a void new world of emptiness all around her. She began to wander about the strange platform, her bare feet making a tapping sound on the ground similar to what her boots produced on the floor of the airship. The outside world was full of danger and distressing feelings, but here she was safe and alone. For some reason, though, she felt a sense of pity for this land around her that was so obviously neglected. Giant craters racked the ground, and gigantic skinny stalks of black metal protruded randomly from the floor as they reached for the black sky. The entire horizon, for as long as she could see, was a blend of the dark towers and the white-and-black floor. Try as she might, Maria couldn’t imagine a single explanation for this landscape, how she got there, or how she would escape. There was no sense of time in this world. Last time she was only in the oppressive darkness for an instant, but now Maria felt as if she had been wandering through the uniform landscape for hours. Nothing around the area changed at all, no matter which direction she went or looked. Without cognizant control, she stopped walking eventually and stood still. A wind came from what felt like every direction, shifting her blood-stained cloak around her body and pulling it every which way. Beneath the cloak, she was completely naked. She blinked, and suddenly pure white wires wrapped around her extremities like the fingers of the detached breeze, grasping at her from every direction and pulling tightly once they met her flesh. Red droplets burst from the wire’s grip and splashed onto the floor beneath her. There was no pain. The wires held so tightly onto her that Maria found herself suspended a few inches off the ground by them. She moved to speak and found her throat useless – no sound could escape from her. She blinked again, and a woman appeared before her. The stranger was familiar. No, Maria realized; this stranger looked exactly like she did, and wore nothing but the exact same blood-drenched violet cloak. The stranger had very long dark violet hair, just like Maria’s own. The only difference between the two of them were their eyes: the stranger had harsh, glowing golden eyes. The strong gaze of the stranger was the same gaze Maria frequently saw in her mind. ‘Who are you?’ She tried to speak out, but still no sound could escape from her mouth. Still, the stranger spoke as if she heard what Maria had asked. “Despicable.” The woman’s full, dark lips parted to speak this single word. It echoed throughout the land as if a curse, instantly setting every single dark tower in the ground onto a pure black fire. The heat slammed into Maria like a wave, causing her to squirm violently and clench her eyes shut tightly. With the amazing heat came almost palpable agony, a spiritual one that transcended the growing wounds throughout her bound body. She wanted to scream, but again could not. It felt like she had no mouth. Everything started to melt. Maria swore she could feel even her eyes evaporating in their sockets. She lost her sense of vision, feeling, and self, and her memories faded, and all her compassion. The true emptiness was frightening, but soon she lost even this fear of herself, just the heat and the emptiness. The only thing that persisted was the startling gaze of the stranger, and the one word she had spoken. ‘Despicable.’ ***** A familiar voice penetrated the darkness and was followed by tiny spears of light. The terrible loneliness finally gave out a dying wheeze and allowed itself to succumb to the ensuing illumination. The voice became comprehensible. “Maria?” She was shaking. Everything was moving, and the voice was so loud. It was familiar to her. ‘Could it be…?’ "Maria! Wake up!" Her eyes flicked open and she immediately started to sit up with difficulty. The sun was starting to rise in the horizon and Maria was still on the upper deck of the ship, no longer anywhere near the stairs she lost consciousness near. A quick observation proved that she was in Crono's arms, and around the two was a crowd of people, mostly passengers with some disheveled crew members. They were all staring at the two of them. A natural blush rose on her face followed by confusion and slight fear, but she didn't exactly try to leave his embrace just yet. It was calming and warm. The people hesitantly watched her every move and refused to make eye contact with her. She slowly touched her forehead, feeling for the dried blood caked on the site of her injury. The blood was still there but her wound was gone, as was all aching she had felt in her body. How could that be? She attempted to speak, only to cringe at her throat’s amazing dryness. "What...What happened? The pirates..." A brief flash of relief occurred in her when she found that she actually could speak now. She wasn’t trapped in that odd monochromatic dream world anymore, at least. Crono nervously chuckled and helped her stand. She noticed her cloak was no longer around her shoulders. “I managed to break open the padlock on the door just as soon as it all ended, but everyone managed to get a glimpse of the end of it. You really don’t remember anything?” Maria looked at him without comprehension. “Remember what? The last thing I remember was coming back upstairs when I found that the door was unlocked… but it was dark then, and the pirates…” For the first time, Maria tore her eyes away from Crono’s and looked around curiously. The scene around them all was horrific. Dried blood stained on every inch of the floor’s wood. The deck was stained beyond repair, and all around were perceptible flecks of gore and viscera. The pirate ship was nowhere to be found. It looked like a terrible slaughtering had taken place on the deck. As she looked down, Maria noticed that her clothes were just as equally splattered with blood. “Where… Where are the pirates?” She looked up to Crono and held onto him with despair. There was a possible explanation in her mind, but she didn’t want to believe it. She couldn’t have done that. Not again. “Where did they all go? What happened, sir Crono?” The mercenary could sense the pain in her, and looked down. “I’m sorry. I should have gotten here sooner, or been up here with you. It didn’t have to happen like this… but it’s not your fault. You saved me. You saved us all.” “But… like this?” She shook her head, and her knees threatened to buckle beneath her. The people staring at her fearfully… her clothes, covered in blood… the enemies, missing… There was only one possible explanation for it all. Maria had lost control again to that stranger within her with the golden eyes. Now, she was terrified. ‘There were so many enemies… And I killed them all? What kind of monster am I?’ Before she knew what was happening, tears started to freely flow from Maria’s eyes. “What have I done? What am I? Who is that inside of me? How could I have done this?” She collapsed now, and Crono held her to him closely. He gingerly petted her hair and started walking her to the stairs. “Don’t do this. It’s okay. You saved us all. You’re not a killer.” “I am! I’m so dirty. I’m so… despicable.” Those eyes appeared in her psyche again, and threatened to swallow her whole. She screamed into Crono’s chest. “Who am I, sir Crono? Is she the real me?” He had no answer for her. Only guidance. He helped her walk forward, past the fearful crowd of survivors, and down the stairs to the passenger deck. Crono’s face was dark; Maria’s was stained with tears. “Who am I?” she continued to babble as she wept. “Who is she? Who am I?” Outside, the sun had risen to its full glory, painting the sky blue and orange. The brilliant colors infiltrated the atmosphere and drove off the night and the darkness. With the night fled the comets, and thus Maria's perfect night. The innocence was gone forever. ...End of Part Five. <- Previous Page | Main Page | Next Page ->